TY - EJOU
AU - Ahmed, Abubaker
AU - Wahballa, Hosham
AU - Awouda, AlaEldin
AU - Elhag, Arafat Abdulgader Mohammed
AU - Osman, Ahmed Hamza
AU - Himmat, Mubarak
TI - Contact Force Tracking in Robotics Using Reference-Dependent Constant Impedance Control
T2 - Computer Modeling in Engineering \& Sciences
PY - 2026
VL - 148
IS - 2
SN - 1526-1506
AB - Accurate force regulation is essential in robotic contact tasks such as polishing, grinding, and assembly. However, conventional impedance controllers often exhibit limited force-tracking accuracy, while adaptive methods require high tuning effort and computational cost. To address these issues, this paper proposes a Constant Impedance Force Controller (CIFC) based on a Force Reference Dependent Impedance (FRDI) model, which is developed and validated through computer modeling and simulation. Robot environment interaction is computationally modeled as a mass damper spring system, and a position-based impedance framework is employed to regulate force deviations. A compensation signal derived from the FRDI stiffness and damping terms reduces tracking errors while preserving constant impedance characteristics. Stability is proven using Lyapunov analysis. Numerical simulations and experimental validation demonstrate that the proposed method achieves robust force tracking under multi-source uncertainties on ramp, curved, and complex surfaces. The CIFC achieves an average force-tracking RMS error of 0.15 N in simulation, compared with 0.11–0.19 N for the benchmark methods. Experimentally, RMS errors range from 0.24 to 0.52 N under reference forces of 5–15 N on curved and complex surfaces, with maximum deviations of ±0.35 and ±0.50 N, respectively. These results confirm the effectiveness of the proposed modeling and simulation framework, demonstrating improved robustness and tracking consistency over conventional impedance control.
KW - CIFC method; force tracking; force corrector; polishing process; complex surfaces
DO - 10.32604/cmes.2026.084395